Rain Room Smells So Good

This summer I've had the pleasure of working rAndom International's Rain Room as part of the MoMa staff. This is my first time working for MoMa and it has been a whirlwind of an experience to say the least.

I've utilized every bit of language skill I have which is mostly English and Spanish with some working knowledge of Italian and French, Il s'agit d'une file d'attente de six heures. I've met the artists and their wonderfully quirky PR person Natalie Kovaks whom I adore.

Me With Hannes Koch one of the Designers of Rain 

The First Lady and her daughters, Owen Wilson, Beyonce and JZ (Yes Blue Ivy was there too) and the mayor of New York, have all come to the Rain Room (Gaga you've got one more day, lets make it happen).

We've seen every photo pose imaginable: the superman, the namaste, the hair flip, the jumping shot, the make out pic and the YMCA. There have been ballet performances, a team of child ballroom dancers and students of Julliard & Alvin Ailey and two people trying really hard to pull of the Patrick Swayze/Jennifer Grey swan dive moment (lets just say #fail). 

I've personally witnessed 4 proposals (they all said yes), 2 engagement photo shoots, and a woman determined to get the best pic of her in her wedding gown standing in the rain (she waited in line with her husband for 4 hours in a floor length dress and reapplied her makeup once she got to the interior line).

People in awe, shock, amazement, confusion, angry people, people in tears, people so impressed they came back three times (yes they waited in line each time).

And now it's all coming to a close. This is the last weekend of the exhibition in New York. Tomorrow July 28th, Rain Room will be open until midnight. We're expecting 12 hour queues all day long. Today the first person in line got there at 3:30am!
I want to thank MoMa and rAndom for an amazing summer, I hope to work here in the future (cross your fingers). Being a part of this world of art, even in my small capacity has been a great privilege and I will always remember my summer at MoMa and Rain Room.

I've attached a youtube posted by rAndom Internation about rain room and some of my favorite instagrams.

For more photos be sure to check me out on Instagram @Smellthepaintfumes and #rainroom

Kate Moss Smells So Good

Kate Moss has become one of the most iconic faces in fashion history and has definitely made her impact on the art world as well. She's been on 32 Vogue covers 8 of which were American! She's been the subject for numerous artists most notably painted by artists Lucian Freud and Chuck Close. Back in 2005 a Moss portrait done by Freud sold for £3.93 (thats $5,836,836 USD!!). A 10K solid gold rendering of Moss in a yoga pose by Mark Quinn called Microcosmos or Siren Sold for a wopping £577,250 (I'll spare you the monetary translation you get the point). And it looks like Moss is back on the auction block according to trendland. The collection up for grabs features photographs by artists such as Mario Testino and Annie Leibovitz. Some things never go out of style. Mmm Mmm Kate you smell so good. 

 

Allyson Reynolds Smells So Good

So I've recently been encountering lots of moths in my neighborhood. At one particular street lamp I noticed an entire "flock" of these dusty nighttime butterflies. So I did some googling to see if a group of moths had a name and they do- a gathering of Moths is called an eclipse, which is pretty awesome.

 This leads me to the work of Allyson Reynolds. Her vibrant and elegant hand captures perfectly the these delicate little creatures. Reynolds' work was first shown at the Rebecca Hassock Gallery in London back in 2012 with the premier of her book Moth Song. Reynold's paintings have graced the pages of Vogue magazine featured in an interior design article. I'd love to own one of her pieces myself and if you have some cash to dish out you can too as you can buy a piece of the Moth Song collection on her site.

Kris Trappeniers Smells So Good

Trappeniers is a graffiti stencilist and paper artist based in belgium. He creates these amazingly intricate cuts by hand, first drawing out the line work with a ballpoint then carving them out to be spray painted on anything from walls, canvas to vinyl. Now if you've ever wielded an Xacto knife you know this 'aint no easy task. I've had some bruised finger tips after some simple designs of my own. I came across his designs in Paper Works at the Strand bookstore and had to stop and jot down this guys name to do some research later. The book is a bit cheaper on Amazon so I'll post the link instead (Sorry Strand). Thanks Kris, you blow my mind.

Fumi Nakamura Smells So Good

Nakamura's work is epic.  Her fantastical graphite images gives me chills. You can purchase a T-shirt of one of her designes on Threadless.com for $20! She's been featured on the Huffington Post, Juxtapoz Magazine, and Hifructose.

Carmen Garcia Huerta Smells So Good

Carmen Garcia Huerta has an interesting idea of beautiful. You have to admire the skill it must take to make leprosy look chic- the woman knows how to work ungly. Her images of deformed celebs, iconic figures and women lusting over fashion are hard to look away from. Her blog shows her work in process as well as finished images. Her editorial works are are very different from the work filed under "artistic" and I'm definitely into her version "pretty."

Deanna Staffo smells so good

Deanna Staffo, a Baltimore based illustrator I discovered by chance a few months ago blew my mind. Her work has been featured in Blackbook Magazine, Time Out New York and Playgirl (ha!). Her blog "Mischief and Madness" gives glimpses into her fantastic life (she just had a baby!), complete with photos from her Moleskine skecthbook. Follow her on instgram @dstaffo